Japan's anti-trust watchdog said Monday it is investigating whether Google violated rules by asking smartphone manufacturers for preferential treatment.
Google Pixel 8 Pro is an iPhone 15 Pro in disguise? Tech titans in big face-off
04.10.2023 - 16:07 / tech.hindustantimes.com / Pro
After months of anticipation, Google finally took the wraps off its Pixel 8 series at the Made by Google 2023 event on Wednesday, October 4. It is Google's latest entry into the smartphone race, and perhaps a late one, with the aim to offer the best smartphone in the market - a race that is joined by several competing brands such as Apple with its iPhone 15, and Samsung with its Galaxy S23 series.
This year's Pixel 8 and 8 Pro are closer in price to Apple's counterparts, have similar flat-edged screens and can make payments with face identification. Alphabet Inc.'s Google introduced its new lineup Wednesday — including fresh smartphones, watches and earbuds — and raised the starting price of its phones by $100 each.
The Pixel 8 Pro matches the iPhone 15 Pro at $999, while the Pixel 8 costs the same as the iPhone 14 at $699. The new prices reflect the upgraded displays and cameras used in the latest devices, which are still “punching above our weight class,” according to Google product manager Patrick Hennessey, suggesting that consumers are getting more for their money.
The Pixel rollout is Google's latest attempt to make a dent in the market. Though its Android operating system runs the majority of the world's smartphones, the company's own hardware accounts for just a fraction of sales. In the US, Google had 3% of smartphone shipments during the second quarter, according to Counterpoint Research. That compares with 55% for Apple.
Google has sold phones under its own brand for more than a decade, but the introduction of the first Pixel in 2016 deepened the effort. Despite the phones struggling to gain commercial traction, Google's camera and AI features have stood out. Last year, the company expanded its lineup with the Pixel Watch, building out its hardware ecosystem.
Apple, the trailblazer in pushing smartphone prices up, recently raised prices again, taking its latest iPhone 15 Pro Max to $1,199 by discontinuing a cheaper storage capacity. Google has slightly improved its market share with cheaper models, which it typically releases in the middle of each year. In Japan, the company's market share was six times bigger this summer than last, as it stole cost-conscious users away from the iPhone.
The new Pixel phones have updated cameras, adopt displays with flat edges — as Apple has had since the iPhone 12 in 2020 — and come with the promise of seven years of updates for the operating system and security. Internally, they use the third generation of Google's in-house Tensor processor, which includes dedicated hardware for image processing fine-tuned by the company.
The Pro model has a 6.7-inch screen, matching Apple's largest display option, while the lower-end version has a 6.2-inch screen. That display
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tech.hindustantimes.com
21.10.2023 / 05:17
Meta, Google quit tech summit over organizer's Israel remarks
Meta and Google have pulled out of the Web Summit, one of the tech sector's biggest annual events, after the organizer criticized Israel's actions following the Hamas attacks, the companies said on Friday.
tech.hindustantimes.com
17.10.2023 / 11:01
Google Messages working on a big security feature to curb screen sharing
In a bid to tackle cybercrime, Google Messages is reportedly testing a feature that will curb screen sharing, preventing anyone from snooping on your Android smartphone. For the unaware, Messages is Google's official messaging platform that uses Rich Communication Services (RCS) to send and receive SMS and MMS. To keep users engaged, Google keeps introducing new features on a regular basis. Last month, Google brought a forwarding feature that allows users to send a single message to multiple contacts at the same time without the need to send it repeatedly to these contacts. Now, it is also introducing a key security feature feature that could prevent threat actors from snooping on your phone.
gamespot.com
13.10.2023 / 16:33
Microsoft Officially Acquires Activision Blizzard, Nearly Two Years Later
Microsoft is apparently not spooked by closing the deal on the unlucky day of Friday the 13th.
rockpapershotgun.com
13.10.2023 / 12:57
CD Projekt used speech-cloning tech to revoice a dead actor in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
If you've ever spoken to the ripperdoc character Viktor Vektor in the Polish localisation of Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty expansion, you've been talking to a cyborg. Technically, of course, most characters in Cyberpunk 2077 are cyborgs, but in this case, I'm referring to one voice actor posing as another using voice-cloning technology, following the second actor's death.
tech.hindustantimes.com
12.10.2023 / 09:59
Google pays Apple nearly $20 bn a year to be on your iPhone, but this fantastic deal is in danger
Amid the sensational US Department of Justice (DOJ) antitrust case against Google, where the legality of the company's deal with Apple is under contention, through which it has become the default search engine on iPhones, a new report has made a major revelation on just how much is being paid. The antitrust case intends to find whether anti-competition practices were used by Google to keep itself as the default search engine on iPhone 12, iPhone 13, iPhone 14, iPhone 15 and other models. Recently Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified in the case and called it a ‘problematic' behavior of tech companies to strike exclusive deals with platforms to keep competition away.
gamingbolt.com
06.10.2023 / 00:09
CD Projekt RED Hasn’t Decided Yet if Cyberpunk 2 Will be First-Person
With the vast majority of CD Projekt RED’s work on Cyberpunk 2077 having wrapped up after Update 2.0 and Phantom Liberty, the developer has now entered a phase where it’s started looking ahead to the next game in the franchise, codenamed Project Orion. It is, however, currently in the very early stages of development, which means there will be plenty of key aspects of the game that even the development team will not have concretely nailed down just yet.
gamingbolt.com
05.10.2023 / 17:57
Cyberpunk 2077 Sequel Project Orion is at the “Conceptual Design” Stage – CD Projekt
With Cyberpunk 2077 receiving its last major update and its only paid expansion in Phantom Liberty (which sold three million in its first week), CD Projekt RED is looking to the future, specifically Project Orion. Announced in October 2022, the sequel promised to prove the “full power and potential of the Cyberpunk universe.”
videogameschronicle.com
05.10.2023 / 15:31
CD Projekt has provided an update on its Cyberpunk 2077 sequel plans
CD Project has provided an update on its plans for Cyberpunk 2077‘s sequel, which is codenamed Project Orion.
tech.hindustantimes.com
03.10.2023 / 04:57
The internet is really the ‘Google web’ and 10 things Satya Nadella said at Google’s antitrust trial
On Monday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took the stand in the ongoing major antitrust trial of Google. He is appearing as a star witness for the US against Google. The trial's primary contention is that Google is using illegal and unfair practices to extend its monopoly in the market and is establishing a consumer behavior that makes it impossible for rivals to exist. Nadella, during his three-and-a-half hour-long testimony, mentioned a number of points to affirm the same and highlight the exclusive deals Google made in order to become the ‘default' option for consumers. He also claimed that the internet is really the ‘Google web'. Let us take a look at the 10 things Satya Nadella said during the antitrust trial.
tech.hindustantimes.com
28.09.2023 / 11:03
Apple’s iPhone cedes ground to Google Pixel in Japan
“Japanese users are becoming more pragmatic,” Tom Kang, a Seoul-based analyst for Counterpoint, said in an interview. “There's now more opportunity for alternatives. We've seen a little bit of growth in Sony and a little bit of growth in some other brands, but the growth of Google was most surprising.”
wccftech.com
28.09.2023 / 10:25
Sonic Superstars Will Run At “Smooth” 60 FPS on Nintendo Switch, Development Producer Confirms
The Nintendo Switch port of Sonic Superstars is setting out to be a solid one, judging from information coming from this year's Tokyo Game Show.